At the core of the BEERG organisation is our Brussels European Employee Relations Group information-sharing and networking service established in 2003 and now with more than 50 member companies headquartered in various Member States of the European Union, the United States, India and Japan. BEERG member companies have a substantial organisational footprint in the 30 countries within the scope of the European Works Council Directive.  The original BEERG “mission” was to help HR and Employee Relations executives and specialists in member companies get to grips with pan-European employee relations issues and to assist them in implementing European business strategies effectively through well planned and executed employee relations interventions at the European and national levels. Increasingly, our members have demanded that we broaden our mission and services to take on board the globalisation of manufacturing and services, and the employee relations questions that have come with it.

Today we help member companies deal with employee relations issues associated with relocations, offshoring and employee relations management well beyond the borders of the European Union.  As specialists in the provisions of international labor law and the instruments of the ILO, the UN and OECD, we help members to understand global trade union strategies; to deal with international corporate campaigns and requests from Global Union Federations to negotiate International Framework Agreements; and to manage labor related corporate social responsibility matters in the company’s owned facilities and in their supply and distribution chains.

The BEERG group meets over two days, three times a year.  The meetings take place in February, June and October, normally in Brussels.   BEERG membership may have grown – but our approach to meetings and our ongoing relationships with members continue to be based on serious professionals discussing and debating important issues with one another in confidence in an informal environment.  Our BEERG dinners are legendary for the speakers they attract and the social and dining experiences that come with them.

We also have a growing network of “BEERG sub-groups”. Currently we have such groups in the UK, France, Ireland and Australia. They meet several times a year and focus on national developments in employment law and labor relations. Where appropriate, we have made submissions to governments on the transposition of European Directives into national law and have opened a dialogue with both government ministers and officials on how proposed changes in domestic employment law would impact the international business community.

Beyond our regular meeting schedule, BEERG membership benefits include;

•    Timely, and often “insider”, information on European Union employment law and social policy initiatives;
•    The opportunity to meet  with key EU decision makers to influence the content of proposed legislation;
•    “Reflective”  and “flash”  reports on transnational employee relations developments and international trade union organisation and strategies;
•    A  weekly newsletter highlighting important employee relations developments across Europe and globally;
•    The HR Policy weekly update on US labor relations developments;
•    Informal peer-to-peer benchmarking on key employee relations questions;
•    Regular BEERG and HR Policy member publications, including our comprehensive Guide to the 2009 EWC Directive and our annual review of Global Collective Bargaining trends;
•    Quarterly webinars on key international employee relations issues;
•    Discounts on consulting and training services